Sleep came hard Sunday night into Monday morning. Like many Packers fans, I have more emotional investment in the team than serves my inner peace.
People say we’d have gotten crushed by San Francisco anyway. No matter, it was a tough loss. But when you can’t beat an average team, at home, with playoffs on the line, then you’re not a playoff team.
I got fooled.
I thought “that” Packers team was a mirage, a distant painful memory from the first half of the 2022 season. But the mirage reanimated Sunday night against Detroit. Unimaginative play calling, poorly executed blocks, fumbles, dropped balls, stunning mental breakdowns and below average QB play.
There are myriad off-season discussions to have and decisions to be made. Number one with a bullet, is, of course, what to do with Aaron Rodgers. It’s clear to me and, I think, a majority of fans that it’s time for change. Jordan Love “may” not be the answer. But, based on his age, his 2022 performance and his recent performances in playoff or playoff like games, Aaron Rodgers is no longer the player to lift his team in big games. After a mostly brilliant career, Rodgers is an average quarterback, at best.
Rodgers play was not why the Packers went on a December-to-New Years’ win streak. An argument could be made that they’d have done the same with Jordan Love playing QB. Maybe they’d even have beaten Detroit with better QB play, but we won’t know.
Figure it out
There are $58 million reasons why Rodgers will come back. Even wealthy people don’t walk away from that kind of guaranteed money. It’s on Mark Murphy, Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur to figure out a way to trade Rodgers. At this point his trade value would seem to be little or nothing. The guess here is, Green Bay will end up to eat most or all of his salary. It turns out, that’s the price of moving on.
To be fair, Rodgers is not fully to blame for the “lose and they’re out” disappointment vs Detroit. It was a team loss indicative of most of their season. Detroit played better than expected and they will be the divisional favorites in 2023. The Lions aren’t going away. All the more reason for the Packers to do a major shift at quarterback.
It’s time to learn if Jordan Love, Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst are the best leaders for this team with Aaron Rodgers out of the picture.